Catalina IslandConservancy

Emission-Free Ride

If your friends call you an "early adopter," you'll want to take note of MIT student Ben Gulak's way-cool emission-free vehicle. It looks like a cross between a motorcycle and a unicycle. And it's already landed him on the cover of Popular Science magazine as the creator of one of last year's top ten inventions.

The Uno, as it's called, is completely electric. It works a bit like a Segway. You lean forward to go faster and back to stop. To turn, you lean slightly to the left or right. Top speed could be around 40 miles per hour, though Gulak admits this will require a bit more tweaking.

The idea for the Uno came to Gulak when he visited China with his family. He was amazed at all the air pollution and learned that lots of that smog was coming from the thousands of gasoline powered motor scooters whizzing through the streets. He figured there had to be a better way.

It'll be awhile before the Uno hits the proverbial road. But we can hope that when it comes to emission-free ideas like these, industry will put it into high gear -- or in this case, lean forward, to go faster, please!